#President #NicolasMaduro: #OpenLetter to the #People of the #UnitedStates

An Open Letter to the People of the United States from President Nicolas Maduro
By Nicolas Maduro
I address these words to the people of the United States of America to warn of the gravity and danger that intend some sectors in the White House to invade Venezuela with unpredictable consequences for my country and for the entire American region. Read more...

Venezuela: From Oil Proxy to the Bolivarian Movement and Sabotage. Abysmal Poverty under US Proxy Rule (1918-1998)
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Bonnie Faulkner
We discuss the economic and political crisis in Venezuela, its history as an oil proxy nation since the discovery of oil in 1918, through successive dictatorships, coups d’etats, a fake nationalization of the oil industry, the Chavista movement and destabilization through financial warfare, with a special emphasis on Michel Chossudovsky’s personal experience there conducting a study on poverty in 1975 as Advisor to the Venezuelan Minister of Planning. Read more...

US Influence in Venezuela Is Part of a Two Centuries-old Imperial Plan
By Shane Quinn

The #Russian #Hacking Tale: All #Sizzle, No #Steak

REBUTTAL BY

The false accusations being leveled at Vladimir Putin and his phantom "hackers" are so preposterous that even Boobus Libtardus shouldn't need us to rebut this piece of "fake news." Nonetheless, this remains a very useful piece for analytical dissection because, when stripped naked, it features some of the classic tactical tricks often used by journalistic deceivers -- mainly, the "sell-the-sizzle-but-not-the-steak" marketing trick. By catching and exposing the subtle Sulzbergerian subterfuge of Messrs. Mark Mazzetti & Eric Lichtbblau (cough cough), we thereby inoculate the reader against future false stories which utilize the same mendacious magic. 

Mazzetti & Lichtblau (author of "The Nazis Next Door") -- masters of journalistic sleight-of-hand.

Sub-Headline: The conclusion that Russia intervened in the election to help Donald J. Trump was based on what many believe ....

Analysis: "based on what many believe" --- sounds impressive but tells us nothing. "Many" also believe that the allegation is false, and the word "believe" implies opinion, not hard evidence.

Sub-Headline: ... is overwhelming circumstantial evidence, ...

Analysis: And yet, this "overwhelming circumstantial evidence" -- (sizzle sizzle) -- has still not been released! We are left to blindly trust an unnamed (imaginary?) CIA source that the "evidence" is indeed "overwhelming."

Mazzetti & Lichtblau: American spy and law enforcement agencies were united in the belief, in the weeks before the presidential election, that the Russian government had deployed computer hackers to sow chaos during the campaign.

Analysis: "were united in the belief" --- apart from being an untrue statement, that claim still does not provide the reader with any evidence of the "Russian hacking." Oh waiter --- Where is my damn steak, please?

Mazzetti & Lichtblau: Last week, Central Intelligence Agency officials presented lawmakers with a